Blue Phoenix

by Tinalynge

  The next battle was between two peak experts at the Primordial Immortal level, and the fight was incredibly desperate. Blood sprayed everywhere, and none of them had a real advantage. Their fight continued to go on for the better of an hour before the victor was determined.

  This time the loser was also adopted into a faction of Diyu. He was adopted by King Wuguan. Although he was unhappy with the fact that he had lost, his face still lit up when he heard the offer, and he instantly accepted it.

  Like the last one, he too was accompanied by a few guards and led into the seating behind the kings. His face was beaten black and blue, but even so, he held his head high, and his eyes shone with excitement. He was now a member of Wuguan's family! A family of one of the Kings of Hell!

  Chapter 585 - The Final Two

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  Chapter 585: The Final Two

  The first four winners had been determined, and the other four were eliminated. Of the four, three were adopted into kings’ families while Pei Ze was led to the audience to observe the rest of the tournament.

  Although they had all fought once already, the tournament continued. An hour to rest was given before they continue with the second round of the tournament. Thus the four experts would become two.

  During this hour, all four experts were seated in meditation fully focused on restoring the energy they had just used. The one who had used the least amount of energy was the Nightcrawler youth and after him was Hui Yue.

  Both of them had not spent too much energy during their first fight, and now they were back in peak condition even before the hour was up.

  The other two cultivators had rather desperate battles, and both of them were eagerly hoping that Hui Yue and the Nightcrawler youth would fight each other. If they did not, then they would be in a world of pain.

  As the hour went by, the audience was busy chatting amongst one another. The Judges of Hell were busy discussing the two people they wanted to win, and so was the audience, but where the judges favored Hui Yue, the audience preferred the Nightcrawler youth because of his connection with death. Having such a connection with death would make him a perfect Judge of Hell!

  "Time to continue!" Yanluo called out, and once more the cauldron appeared in front of the contestants who all picked a piece of paper.

  Before they could open them, Yanluo made a gesture with his hand, and all four shone with a white light before dimming once more. Anyone with a slight amount of knowledge would know that Yanluo had just changed the numbers on the cards. He had clearly cheated, but no one dared to say anything, they all were dumbfounded. Had Yanluo such thick skin that he did not mind that others would call him unfair and a cheater?

  But Yanluo truly looked as if he did not care and a smile was even adorning his face as he nodded to the experts, "See who you are up against."

  No one wasted more time, and all of them looked curious to see whom Yanluo had planned for them to fight.

  Hui Yue expected that he would be up against the Nightcrawler youth. Although they were both the strongest left in the tournament, they were also both members of major sects.

  One would think that they preferred the two for major sects to mutually destroy one another, leaving a small chance for the other unaffiliated experts to win, but when he saw his opponent, Hui Yue was surprised to find that this was not the case.

  His opponent was one of the unaffiliated experts who had fought desperately just a while ago, and although he had been given an hours rest, he was far from his peak condition.

  When Hui Yue saw who his opponent was, a stone of relief was lifted from his heart. It seemed that Yanluo was quite supportive of Hui Yue this time something which he would forever remember in his heart.

  Hui Yue was the second person to fight this time. The first ones on stage were the Nightcrawler youth and his opponent, but the battle ended quickly. The opponent was wrapped up in shadows which formed a shadow cocoon before he fell unconscious and was finally released.

  So far no one had been able to make him show even a tenth of his real strength while Hui Yue had been forced to use quite a lot of his in the first battle.

  'Don't worry too much,' Lan Feng's voice sounded in Hui Yue's ear. 'He is controlling darkness and death, but who am I? I am a phoenix! I control fire and rebirth! I am his natural enemy. Although I don't wish for it to go that far, but if you are incapable of winning, allow me to take over your body, and I will do my best not to let you down.'

  Hui Yue sighed and nodded, but he could not help but feel that something was not quite right. It was true that the daos that Lan Feng controlled countered this Nightcrawler Youth, but he was also just a Primordial Immortal like Hui Yue, he was nothing more than a soul within Hui Yue's body. If Hui Yue, with the help of all those extra lives and all the daos at his disposal, was incapable of winning, how could Lan Feng expect to win this tournament? Hui Yue had no idea, but Lan Feng had never before lied to him, and thus he trusted him completely.

  The fight had ended, and it was now time for Hui Yue to stand on stage and meet his opponent. His opponent was not as energized as Hui Yue, but he was not weak, and the white-haired young man was not stupid enough to look down on him.

  Exactly because Hui Yue did not look down upon his opponent, the fight was incredibly fast and without any suspense. The first thing he did was to activate the dao of gravity, putting a thousand-fold pressure on the opponent, rooting him in place. After which he easily poured the blue cloud within his body and withdrew all of his energy.

  Without any reserves of Ancestral Worldpower, the opponent had no other option than to give up. His loss was as terrible as the one before, but to have reached this far, one could easily see how talented he was, and he too was instantly recruited by one of the judges.

  After his defeat, the entire stadium lapsed into silence. Not because of them being disappointed by seeing such a one-sided battle, but because they could feel the fighting spirit that erupted from the Nightcrawler Sect's youth. He was simply incapable of holding back anymore, and when he looked at Hui Yue, his eyes glistened with ferocity.

  "He has no interest in becoming the new Judge of Hell," Yanluo said in a low voice that only the kings could hear. "He is here solely because he wishes to challenge Pei Yue. I never thought that the tournament final would be between one who does not even want to become the Judge of Hell and another who wishes to become the judge more than he yearns for life itself."

  Hearing the words, Yanluo spoke everyone was surprised and rather shocked. No one questioned his words though, if Yanluo said something then it was true. But who would have thought that the most nerve-wracking battle of the century, the battle that everyone wished to be apart of, was between two people where only one had a real desire to become the Judge of Hell.

  If Yanluo had told them that Hui Yue only wished to become the judge for the sake of a bet he had with Yanluo, then these people would fall from their chairs in shock.

  In truth, neither of the two finalists actually wished to become the Judge of Hell for the sake of the fame or the safety it brought, but both would fight as if their lives depended on it.

  Hui Yue had decided to become the Judge of Hell for the sake of Wang Ju Long, while the Nightcrawler Sect's youth simply wished to fight Hui Yue with all he had.

  This youth had never before had a true rival in his own generation. He had long since been seen as the strongest of the younger generation, and every time there was a battle, the opponent would always concede before it even started.

  Back in his sect, he would have to fight the older generation, but the elders were too strong for him to fight and the others dared not fight him for real since he was the crown prince of their sect. If they truly beat him, were they not going to get on his bad side, and thus be punished later on?

  Due to this, the youth had no real idea of his actual strength. He had never experienced a real desperate fight as the elders would always stop him before things went too far, but this time he felt that he ha
d found his rival.

  Just looking at Hui Yue made him feel threatened. His fighting spirit would rise when he looked at this white-haired young man, and his hands would involuntarily clench into fists as he could not wait to try his hands at a real battle.

  Were this not a question about the life and death of Wang Ju Long, then Hui Yue too would also likely enjoy the battle.

  Hui Yue was aware that this expert was only in the tournament to fight him, but asking him to allow Hui Yue to win and then fight afterward was useless.

  No one knew exactly why Hui Yue wanted to win, but everyone could see that he would do anything to do so.

  It was only in such a desperate fight that the Nightcrawler Sect's youth would be able to fully feel the pressure and stimulate his potential, allowing for him to reach new heights. This pressure was something he never truly experienced, so even if he had to fight to the death, he would gladly do so, just to experience it.

  The Nightcrawler Sect's youth was in no way looking down on Hui Yue. He was already looking at him as his rival and someone who was possibly even stronger than himself.

  Although the battles before had been won easily, Yanluo once more gave Hui Yue and the Nightcrawler Sect's youth an hour to restore their energy to the peak and to mentally prepare themselves for the battle they were about to fight.

  This was an important fight for everyone. It would determine who was the number one genius of the younger generation, but more importantly, it would determine the future of Wang Ju Long.

  It would also determine the new King of Hell.

  Hui Yue shrugged his shoulders as he thought about that. It was only a temporary position. He had already done what he could to ensure that the previous Chujiang would return. He was at most going to be sitting on the throne for a few years while the late king's wife would gather the items needed to resurrect Chujiang. This was the main reason for him to make them remember that death was not final.

  Yes, Yanluo had said that if he wanted answers, he needed to become the new King of Hell, but Hui Yue was not interested in this position. Because of this, he decided to do what he could to make them get the previous one back.

  Still, this meant nothing right now, and he quickly removed every single thought from his mind. The only thing which mattered to him was to win the next battle. As long as he could win this fight, he would be able to know how to resurrect Ju Long.

  The atmosphere was not as light as it had been before. It was now tense, and everyone was counting the minutes, waiting for the battle to start. The ones who seemed the most at ease were the two contestants who were seated in meditation, but truthfully, neither of them were calm.

  'Don't worry, we'll win,' Lan Feng tried to ease the worry in Hui Yue's heart, and hearing this, the young man steadily opened his eyes. He nodded his head, and a gleam of certainty appeared in his eyes, "We will win." He repeated as he ascended the stage. It was finally time for the showdown.

  Chapter 586 - World of Darkness

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  Chapter 586: World of Darkness

  As soon as he stepped onto the stage, Hui Yue felt a pressure unlike any he had ever faced before.

  Although this Nightcrawler Sect's youth was not the opponent with the most Ancestral Worldpower that Hui Yue had ever faced, and neither was he the one with the most daos under his control, he was without a doubt the most lethal opponent Hui Yue had ever faced.

  His Ancestral Worldpower pool was larger than Hui Yue’s, and although Hu Yue knew more daos, he was not as proficient in using them as this youth was.

  One needed to remember that Hui Yue was less than fifty years old while this Nightcrawler Sect’s youth was closer to two hundred and fifty. Although he had never had desperate life and death struggles like Hui Yue had encountered time and time again, he had still fought against the elders of his sect. During these fights, he had managed to perfect the daos that he did control.

  Hui Yue was far more rustic in his battles. He had a decent understanding of all his daos. Even now as he stood on the stage he was certain that he would risk his life for this victory. He would never give up, and because of this, his killing intent started to erupt from his body. He could release all of his potential as Yanluo had promised that no matter how terribly they injured the other, none of them would lose their bodies or have their souls shattered.

  Crippling an opponent was also impossible, as their body consisted fully of Ancestral Worldpower. Thus there was no reason for Hui Yue to hold back.

  The moment his killing intent erupted from his body, everyone in the audience sucked in a breath of cold air. All of them felt as if they had been thrown in an ice-cold sea.

  It was not just the ordinary audience who were shocked, but also eight of the nine Judges of Hell, all of them except Yanluo, were also very shocked by his killing intent, especially Qinguang.

  He knew that they had to go through the Mirror of Retribution’s test which tested whether one had the right character. To show such a killing intent one had to have killed countless people.

  That was when he remembered that Hui Yue had not triggered the mirror causing him to narrow his eyes. Did this Pei Yue have some background where he had slaughtered his way through countless battles? Was he the kind of ruthless person that would wantonly kill people?

  King Qinguang started to worry, but when he saw the carefree smile on Yanluo's face, he wondered if maybe he was wrong.

  It was true that Hui Yue had killed many people. Some through one on one battles, but the majority of the people he had killed was during the war with the Siban Empire and the massacre in the Dungeons of the Divine.

  Although he had killed many people, the majority of his killing intent came from having merged with the red wolf. Although Hui Yue was not the kind of person who would wantonly kill people, the red wolf most definitely was. The wolf had killed more than a million people, accumulating the most dreadful killing intent which was now released.

  A cold sweat appeared on the faces of everyone in the audience, and even Pei Ze, who had previously felt quite close to Hui Yue, was now frightened by him. Although he was frightened, deep inside, he was also proud. This savage cultivator was from his Celestial Sword Sect! With such a show of ferocity, there was a chance that perhaps the Celestial Sword Sect would have the most talented youngster in the entire galaxy.

  While the audience was very shocked by it, it was evident that not even the Nightcrawler Sect's youth could remain unaffected. This was after all the individual who the killing intent was being aimed at, and he felt an uncomfortable chill run down his spine as he looked into the cold and ruthless eyes of Hui Yue.

  Where the audience was filled with shock and apprehension, the only effect it had on the Nightcrawler Sect's youth was that it roused his fighting spirit. It kept on rising and soon he could not hide the smile which slipped onto his lips as his hands clenched in excitement.

  The fight had yet to begin, but both youngsters had already started a mental battle against one another. They stared at one another, and their eyes were locked. There was no enmity between them, no hate or malice, but neither would back down.

  The atmosphere was tense, and everyone in the audience was waiting for Yanluo to start the battle, but the King of Hell was intentionally being slow. He understood that although they had yet to exchange blows, they had already started their fight.

  "Let the fight begin!" Yanluo's voice finally sounded out from within the audience, and the moment his words landed, everything turned to shades of black, white, and gray.

  In the Nightcrawler Sect’s youth's hands was a long black whip, while Hui Yue flicked his hand and the Sword of Icy Tempest appeared.

  No one had seen him use a sword since he had become a God, so not only were the contestants shocked, but so was the audience. Could it be that Hui Yue had no intention of taking his wolf form and fighting as a human?

  No one really knew, only Hui Yue was aware of what he would do. While everywhere was buzzing with exci
tement, Yanluo's eyes narrowed as he saw the sword. "Nine Heaven's Blood Forging!" he muttered to himself as his eyes shone with anticipation.

  Although Hui Yue was a God now, his sword was still an amazing treasure which was capable of fighting the black whip head on.

  The whip slashed out, moving at an inconceivable speed towards Hui Yue. Although it was so fast that afterimages were shown and that the majority of the audience could not see the real whip, Hui Yue was different.

  His senses were sharpened to their limits, and he had a view of the entire stage with his soulforce, so when the whip almost landed right in front of him, he dodged as nimbly as a panther.

  Seeing how easily he dodged, the eyebrows of the Nightcrawler Sect's youth shot up in surprise. Even he would have problems avoiding the speed of the whip if it was aimed at him, but just because Hui Yue was fast did not mean that this young man was going to give up.